User:ScubaSteph/Evaluate an Article

User:ScubaSteph/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Animal tattoo

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I currently work as a Biological Field Technician that requires marking of wildlife, specifically small mammals and amphibians. I thought I could bring some science insight or a different perspective to the article.

Evaluate the article
The article has a good backbone, but I believe it’s lacking details and structure.

The article seems to jump around from section to section with no clear organization as to what the main topic of the article is. The introduction is clear and to the point on what to expect in the article and the different avenues animal tattooing is used on. However, the first aspect of the introduction includes “Art and aesthetics” which is then listed at the end of the article. These titles being out of order can lead to a reader feeling confused on what to expect next. I would suggest naming the subsections in the order they appear in the article to give more structure.

In addition, this section, art and aesthetics, is listed first but I do not believe it to be the most important and primary reason for animal tattooing. Animal tattooing is highly used in the biomedical field both in laboratories and in the field for population richness research. This section of the article highly lacks information and could use more details. This section can list the different types of methods for animal tattooing in addition to the species they are correlated with. For example, small mammals can be tattooed using ear tags like you mentioned for agriculture but not under biomedical. Also, amphibians can be tattooed with toe clippings. Small snakes and lizards can be tattooed by cauterization, clippings or even just a sharpie. Visual representation of these different methods of tattooing would help a reader.

The article includes appropriate placement of citations. However, the references page does not include any links to the sources except for one, Animal Marking. Links should be provided so a reader can further evaluate the information listed and use it for their own research.

Overall, the article has potential but needs to include further details and in dept concepts to the topic of animal tattooing. The article tends to be vague and is listed as a C-class article which indicates it needs further information. If more attention to detail and further in-depth concepts are provided on the topic, it can be a very useful article for others.